COBALT: The Red Phantom (Book One)

Chapter 21: Secrets (Part 2/2)

          Truvius slipped into the study room, a home of books and perfectly filed notes that he had made his own. The only essence of Káel to ever grace the shared space was a bottle of strange smelling liquid he had sprayed the desk's legs with, but Puff still gnawed at them.

          Other than that, he never visited the space.

          Not once.

          He went at a stack of textbooks he'd tucked onto a shelve, pulling away the pile to reveal a neatly tied and folded package of loose paper. It was the perfectly lined and cut parchment Káel had brought from Earth, immaculately white spare the scrawls of writing he had tainted them with. A collection of sorted one sided conversations Truvius' had been busting his brain over deciphering.

          He carefully placed the stack on the desk, tugging out a few iron bound books tucked under the desk to drop next to the papers with a crunch. Káel had left again, nowhere to be found for hours on end and completely out of range of his sender. 

          Ever since the incident in the ruins he'd made a habit of vanishing, mostly after ranting for a few minutes about Mr. Lightwood's weekly defense lessons Lady Samanthra had involuntarily coaxed him into. It all seemed a little extreme to Truvius. The word was he'd run into another unicorn at the edge of the forest, there was nothing unusual about the incident aside from Káel's horrendous luck. At least, nothing unusual enough to prompt extra defensive training.

          He sighed. The one thing that bugged him to no end was when things didn't add up. There was pieces missing to everything, Cobalt's oldest books barely had anything on The Red Phantom, Ray was a lost cause in understanding, and Vera's theory was matched in ludicrousy to his with the lack of evidence he had.

         He grabbed the first book on the pile, pulling back its metal skin to stare at the white symbol painted to its front page. Káel's ceptrum had brought him to the book, the symbol of Whitecrown was an unmistakable mark of Cobalt's history and added even more confusion to the piece. The only mention of a Phantom sat near its end, a vaguely mentioned demon that had been blamed for Zalius Whitecrown's patricide of his father. But the only proof he'd been charged on was a long lasting hunch of bewitchment stemmed from his support of magic. 

          Truvius furrowed his brow as he mindlessly sifted through the pages. None of this could possibly connect to an Earth boy that had been kidnapped by Cobalt's top elite. 

          He pulled up his sleeve, whispering Vera's name into the sender to start a call. Perhaps if his theory had no merit, she had found some evidence towards her crazy idea and was willing to share it.

           The sender didn't even start up, sitting in dead silence on his wrist.

          She was out of range.

          He frowned in confusion, whispering Káel's name into the ceptrum with the same response.

          A coincidence?

          With a stiffening expression he whispered Talli's name into the sender, watching the white orb rise after a couple shakes. "H-hello?"

          Truvius relaxed at Talli's voice. It was easy to tell when she was hiding something, so if she knew anything about Vera and Káel, he'd be able to squeeze it out of her in a matter of minutes. "Hey Talli, is Vera there? I can't get her on my sender."

          "N-no. She d-disappeared an hour ago."

          Truvius checked the time. Káel had left about an hour ago too.